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As you can imagine, Jamie's diary is incredibly busy and – while it's frustrating for him – there simply aren't enough hours in the day for him to attend all the events or make all the personal visits he receives invitations for.

Jamie hasn't had the time to give lessons himself for a while now, but occasionally he may offer them to raise money for his charity Jamie Oliver Food Foundation. We encourage you to sign up to our newsletter to get the latest updates. You may also find some great cooking lessons at your local college or via evening classes. Remember, Jamie started out in his parents' pub kitchen.

Alternatively, Jamie has set up Recipease, a food and kitchen shop where anyone can learn to cook and make great food. There are currently stores in Clapham Junction, Nottinghill and Brighton in the UK, both of which offer a variety of creative and accessible cooking lessons for all levels. The highly trained staff have a wealth of knowledge, energy and ideas to teach engaging classes and help you to develop new kitchen skills or perfect old ones. For more information visit: www.recipease.com

As part of the Ministry of Food campaign, we have also launched several food centres where you can go to learn the basics of cooking and get friendly advice on recipes, ingredients shopping, nutrition, equipment, local and seasonal food, and how to make good simple meals on a budget. There are currently UK centres in Rotherham, Leeds, Bradford, the North East and many more in the pipeline. Internationally, we have centres in Australia in Ipswich (Queensland) Geelong (Victoria) and two trucks in Queensland and Victoria. For more information please visit:www.jamiesministryoffood.com

To improve your skills at home, take advantage of the wealth of resources from Jamie's Home Cooking Skills, a BTEC cooking course created in 2010, and available at: www.jamieshomecookingskills.com

Jamie is always very flattered when people ask him to cook for their dinner parties or events. However, he likes to spend any spare cooking time he has in his restaurants, supporting the staff and apprentices. Therefore, he is no longer able to cater for private or public events.

However, the lovely folk at Jamie Oliver's Fabulous Feasts may be able to assist you. They are an events catering company with a difference, bringing Jamie's passionate, entertaining and relaxed approach to food and dining to the catering industry. For more information, please visit: www.fabulousfeasts.co.uk

Jamie receives requests every day from charities and organisations seeking his involvement. He'd love to be able to support them all but due to time constraints, this is simply not possible. He is currently involved with several charities, including Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, and is unable to take on any new commitments at the moment.

Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of requests Jamie receives for auction and raffle donations, we are no longer able to donate any prizes. As Jamie is the founder of his own charity, all efforts are invested in ensuring the foundation is maximizing its own sources of fundraising.

Jamie makes regular donations to a number of charities through which he hopes to help people all over the world. Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of additional requests we receive every day, he is unable to sponsor any further individuals or causes.

Food Revolution Day is a global day of action for people everywhere to come together and make a stand for good food and essential cooking skills. It is a campaign that unifies the work of Jamie's global foundations and the growing global community of supporters. http://foodrevolutionday.com

Jamie set up Fifteen in 2001 to ‘give something back' to the catering industry. The restaurant in London became a training ground for young people who were not in full time education or employment. Followed by cameras that documented his every move he spent the year setting up a training scheme, the restaurant and the charity into which all the profits would be channelled. The series, Jamie's Kitchen, broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK, became one of the biggest hit shows of the year. It has now been shown in over 40 countries and the tie-in book, also called Jamie's Kitchen, became a runaway success. Jamie Oliver Food Foundation charity now owns Jamie Oliver Fifteen in London and continues its work, recently recruiting the twelfth year of students for training in London. The first Fifteen franchise opened in Amsterdam in 2004 and subsequent Fifteens have opened in Cornwall, UK and Melbourne, Australia in 2006.

In 2004, motivated by the poor state of school dinners in UK schools, Jamie embarked on one of his most ambitious ventures to date. He went back to school with the aim of educating and motivating the kids and dinner ladies to enjoy cooking and eating healthy, nutritious lunches rather than the processed foods that they were used to. Jamie launched a national campaign called Feed Me Better (www.feedmebetter.com) and launched an online petition for better school meals. As a result of the 271,677 signatures on the petition, which Jamie took to 10 Downing Street on 30th March 2005, the government pledged an extra £280 million to improve the standard of school meals, to provide training for dinner ladies and equipment for schools. Over seven months of hard work and constant filming culminated in the award-winning series Jamie's School Dinners, shown on Channel 4. The series prompted a public outcry for change to the school meals system and was awarded Best Factual programme at the UK National TV Awards. Jamie also received a special award for his contribution to television at the National TV awards.

While a lot of young people in Britain go on to further and higher education, almost half leave school at 16 without the recommended 5 A-C grades at GCSE and very few prospects. In 2011, Jamie's Dream School brought together some of Britain's most inspirational individuals to see if they could persuade 20 such kids to give education a second chance. This is not an ongoing campaign, but for more information about the show, please visit:

In the UK, we tend to eat the same types of fish all the time, and many of our favourites are now under threat. Jamie's Fish Suppers aimed to demonstrate that we can all do our bit to help ease the pressure on the big five (cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns) by being adventurous and trying a few alternatives.

Jamie Saves Our Bacon was a celebration of British pork, and an investigation into why our fantastic British pig farmers are disappearing. Jamie looked at the whole process, from piglet to plate, to demonstrate why British pork is the best there is and why it's worth saving. Jamie remains passionate about championing British pork and always recommends that people buy the best-quality meat they can afford, however, he will not be following up this programme with an ongoing campaign. For more information about the show, please visit:

Jamie's Fowl Dinners aired on Channel 4 in 2008 as part of the Chicken Out campaign. In the show, Jamie showed viewers how 94% of meat chickens and 63% of egg-laying hens were still intensively farmed in the UK. Jamie wanted to highlight the welfare implications for the birds as a result of our persistent demand for cheap food, and hopefully change the way we shop forever. Jamie continues in his mission to encourage people to think before they buy and always choose higher welfare birds and free-range or organic eggs where possible. However, he will not following up this programme with an ongoing campaign. For more information about the show, please visit:

In Eat to Save Your Life, Jamie investigated the hidden threats of popular convenience foods using 18 volunteers with self-confessed bad diets as "human guinea pigs". Nutritionist Jane Clarke and renowned Doctor Gunther von Hagens were on hand to analyse each person's fate and advise them on how to reverse the ill effects of their current lifestyles. This is not being pursued as an ongoing campaign.

As you can imagine, Jamie receives many suggestions for his involvement with worthwhile campaigns. Unfortunately, it is not possible for Jamie to support them all. He is committed to improving school dinners in the UK and is still working on the Ministry of Food, which builds on the insights he gained while working on the Feed Me Better campaign and the annual Food Revolution Day. Jamie is very conscious of spreading himself too thinly; therefore he is not looking to tackle any other major issues at the moment.

Set up in 2002 by Jamie Oliver, Fifteen is a restaurant group that uses the magic of food to give unemployed young people a chance to have a better future.

With three locations worldwide – Fifteen Amsterdam, Fifteen Cornwall, Fifteen London – each restaurant has the same mission: firstly, to offer young, unemployed people the experience of learning to work in the restaurant business and, secondly, for customers to enjoy fantastic food and knowledgeable customer service.

Each restaurant redirects its profits into individual registered charities that fund their Apprentice Programmes. This means money goes back into the local economies to train the next generation of professional chefs.

Jamie's Italian is a popular chain of high-street restaurants inspired by Jamie's passion for the Italian way of life. The first branch opened in Oxford in June 2008, and there are now more than 15 restaurants around the UK, with more in the pipeline. There is currently an international restaurant in Dubai, with a launch in Sydney, Australia planned for 2011. For more information, please visit: www.jamiesitalian.com

Barbecoa is a restaurant collaboration between Jamie and Adam Perry Lang that draws on traditional cooking techniques from around the world and celebrates the relationship between fire and food. Barbecoa has its own butcher's shop adjacent to the restaurant selling quality British meat, poultry and game. The London flagship restaurant opened in October 2010. For more information, please visit: www.barbecoa.com

Unfortunately, we can't offer regular work experience or internships but we do occasionally have the opportunity for people who are passionate about food and interested in working for us to join us on a work experience basis for a week or two. We tend to advertise these on the current vacancies section of our website so it's worth keeping an eye out for anything that might come up. If you do apply for a work experience position with us please keep in mind that we cannot promise you will meet Jamie while you are here.

We receive lots of requests each week asking for Jamie's help with all sorts of school, college and university projects, all of which he would love to answer. Unfortunately, this is just not possible. The best thing to do is to have a look around this website where you will find lots of information about Jamie, his various projects and businesses and hopefully answers to your questions.

Jamie often gets asked for advice on becoming a top chef. Here's his response:

First of all, you have to think to yourself, 'Do I really like cooking, do I really like eating?' and if the answer is yes to both, then you're already halfway there!

Don't for a minute believe that it's about training for years and years and travelling the world – this helps, of course, and is really useful, but I think it's really the little things that matter. It's about doing things properly, with real conviction and passion. Like most things in life, the right way or the wrong way, 'dos and don'ts', and perfection in the catering industry can't really be put into words. It's more about personality and your style of cooking. Without sounding too gushing – good food is all about the love.

I was about five years old when I started cooking in a professional kitchen, but don't be put off by my head start. It means nothing; I've seen 30-year olds become proper chefs in just five years.

1. If you're going to get a weekend job as a kid or a student, get one in a restaurant, pub, fishmongers, butchers or on a fruit and veg stall. All of these are really valid ways of learning about food. Then, as the years go by, try and move on to something different or to a more challenging restaurant.

2. Use the summer holidays to do a work placement in a really exciting hotel or restaurant. Whether it's for a week or a month, you'll get a real feel for the kitchen and the way a team works together. After this, you'll have a good idea whether you can handle the job, the hours, the money and the ups and downs that happen working in a high-level pressured kitchen. I've never heard of any head chef who's refused an enthusiastic stranger on the end of a phone the chance to come and do a work placement for free. It's quite common and charming for it to happen to any chef and you may find yourself with a good job offer at the end of it!

3. Having done those last two, you now have three options to consider, none of which are necessarily the right answer:

(a) Go straight into a professional job. Jump in at the deep end with possibly not enough skills but be bold enough to carry it off.

(b) Go to the best local catering college and do a two- or three-year course that focuses mainly on cooking but also gives you an insight into the science of cooking, French culinary language, the front-of-house, management and accounting sides of the business. That's what I did and I enjoyed it, but I did find that it lacked the real feel and vibe of the kitchen. I found working in restaurants over the holidays and on weekends gave me a really good balance.

(c) I've always thought arranging to do day release over two or three years at a good local college is a really good idea. It means you can get a full-time job, which challenges, inspires and pays you, and with your employer's support (and often this includes financial support), you can go to college one day a week.

To finish off, it really is down to you. There's nothing that you can't achieve with hard work, passion and real commitment for cooking. Read as many books as you can get your hands on and try to work in other countries if you can for authenticity. I used to save up and go out for a posh meal with my fellow chefs every five weeks for education. Do all this and you'll be laughing. I don't consider myself a don of cooking but I love what I do and I do it properly with passion and that will always shine through. So get stuck in, get cooking and good luck!

You can find information on the Fifteen training scheme, run by the Jamie Oliver Foundation, here.

We receive many requests each week for business advice, but unfortunately we don't have the time or resources to respond to these requests. If you are specifically interested in social enterprises (like the Jamie Oliver Foundation), you may find the Social Enterprise Coalition website useful: www.socialenterprise.org.uk/

The School Food Trust is responsible for continuing Jamie's work on the Feed Me Better campaign and has posted lots of useful information and recipe suggestions on its website: www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/packedlunches

Jamie's ethos on food is about cooking from scratch and using good ingredients. He doesn't focus on the specific nutritional values of each recipe as he believes everything can be enjoyed in moderation, however, we keep a close eye on the nutritional content of all recipes and monitor any new recipes that go out, often signposting in the introduction if the recipe should be thought of as a treat. Specific nutritional information is not posted on the website and we are unable to send it out. To read Jamie's food philosophy in full, please visit: www.jamieoliver.com/philosophy

To reclaim VAT, customers should contact our customer care team at jmeteam@jmecollection.com and request a VAT receipt which they can then submit to HRM Customs and Excise. We do not have the facility to deduct or refund VAT ourselves.

If you are a returning customer with your credit card details on file with us, you are sometimes still asked to provide a user id and password as part of the new 3D Secure method of online fraud prevention. 3D Secure is a fraud deterrent mechanism being adopted by many credit card providers to reduce the amount of fraudulent charges.

If you have received a promotional code or gift certificate from Jme, you may apply it to the purchase of goods through the Jme website on the shopping basket page where you see a box titled ‘Promotional Code'. Enter your promotional code or the gift certificate code and then click the ‘Re-calculate' button. The relevant amount will then be deducted from your total.

You will receive an order acknowledgement email as soon as you have placed an order. Please keep it in a safe place as we may ask you for information from it in any correspondence. If you do not receive this email within two hours, please contact jmeteam@jmecollection.com, so that we may confirm whether your order has been placed successfully. Please note that this email does not constitute either a confirmation of the order or acceptance by us of the order. Your contract with us to purchase the goods will not be completed until we send you an email notifying you that your goods have been despatched.

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